1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to data storage and in particular to security for storing data.
2. Background of the Invention
Data security is becoming more important with the exponential growth of data that is stored by various means, such as magnetic and optical data storage. Data encryption provides a user a layer of security, wherein data is encrypted and can be accessed using an encryption key. However, encryption may be overcome, exposing sensitive data to unauthorized access.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional system 10 that uses data encryption for secure data storage. Each data channel is assigned to a specific writer/reader (W-R) combination in a transducer head. The data is encrypted and written to tape. Specifically, FIG. 1 shows 16 channels assigned to a 16 W-R combination head, such that channel 1 is fixed to W-R 1, channel 2 is fixed to W-R 2, etc. Specifically, channel 1 data is written by writer 1 and read back by reader 1, the channel 2 data is written by writer 2 and read back by reader 2, and so on. The channel 1 data is from reader 1 and the channel 2 data is from reader 2, and so on. The data read back is then decrypted using a decryption key. However, once the encryption key becomes compromised, the data security in such a tape system is compromised. As such, additional or other techniques for providing data security are desirable.